Adhesive notes, such as Post-its.RTM. Notes produced by Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing (3M), are ubiquitous in homes and offices around the world. The yellow, pink, blue, and fluorescent notes are used for everything from bookmarks to memoranda to labels to phone-message pads.
The great utility of adhesive notes lies in the pressure-sensitive adhesive (PSA) applied in a strip along one edge, which adhesive is of the removable or repositionable type. The PSA strip allows a plurality of sheets, typically about 100, to be adhered together to form a note pad. Individual notes are then written upon, removed from the pad, and adhered to a surface. The notes can then be easily removed, without adhesive remaining behind on the surface, and re-adhered to another surface.
As mentioned, the user writes information on the note in his or her own hand. In many instances it may be desirable to have a more professionally appearing note than that which is achievable with personal penmanship, particularly in a corporate environment. Further, it may be desirable to create "application specific" notes on which a template of information is printed with additional information being printed on the note on a per-use basis. With current adhesive note pads, such professionally appearing or application-specific adhesive notes are not possible.
Avery Dennison Corporation, which is the assignee of the present invention, markets a label-printing system under the name of LabelPro.TM. which enables a user to print information on individual die-cut labels of label sheets. The labels may then be peeled off the label sheet and adhered to files, index dividers, and so on. Although such a label-printing system is useful for generating professionally looking labels, it does not enable a user to print information on adhesive notes.